WRITE CY Stories

Stories about and by local storytellers

THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE POT-BELLIED PENGUIN

When Argyris Loizou took the stage at his first open mic night at Prozak in 2016, I swear there was electricity in the air. This was right after Trump’s election victory, when we were feeling collectively like a child’s balloon that had been stabbed to death. Most of our work that night dealt with our political grief.

But Argyris’ performance was more than an unloading of grief, and it was more than a performance. It was a spine-tingling confession that, despite the personal struggles it dealt with, threw us all in the same confessor’s box. Argyris blew us away with his delivery, originality, and above all, his honesty at precisely the time we needed it. The piece was called Sushi, Buddhism and the Death of David Bowie and you can listen to it here.

Fast forward two years. It’s November 22nd, 2018 and Argyris is back on stage performing his latest work at Open Mic 15. This time the grief is purely personal and——a word of warning——it is harrowing. But like all great performance, what you will feel in the end is not one man’s pain but the joy of connection.